Teachers ‘can win’ cuts battle
UNION HOPES TO RIDE POST-ELECTION PASSION
“WE can win.”
These are the words of teachers who say they’re determined to prevent the “devastating” cuts they claim could see their schools losing teachers, cutting subjects or reducing the school day.
Conservative plans for education proved controversial over the past few weeks, as teachers argued schools weren’t being given enough cash to continue to provide education at their present standard.
But as Theresa May works to form her Government, North Tyneside teacher and National Union of Teachers (NUT) activist Daniel Kebede says he believes an anti-cuts campaign can “build momentum” and force Government to allocate more money.
Prior to the election campaign, Conservative ministers argued that their new funding formula made education fairer, by redistributing cash they said had historically been shared unfairly.
But campaigners said all the formula did was share out insufficient funds in a different way.
According to the National Audit Office (NAO) said schools would need to find an extra £3bn by 2020 — equating to an 8% real-terms cut in funding.
The ‘cut’ would come as a result of increasing costs, including staff pay rises, higher contributions to national insurance and rising pension bills.
Ahead of the elect i o n , teachers and p a r - e n t s held a rally in N e w - c a s t l e City Centre to protest Conse r v a - tive funding plans, while before the election was called, head teachers from across the region wrote to parents to warn them of the impact the plans could have. In March headteacher Con Todd, St Benet Biscop High School, warned of the sorts of decisions his and other schools were facing. He said: “Certainly there will be redundancies; cuts to courses that we’ve traditionally offered because we feel they are essential but have low student numbers; bigger class sizes; shorter school days; a loss of extra curricular activities. These are really uncomfortable decisions.” Mr Kebede believes the action taken by teachers not only helped to ensure that their concerns were well-known among parents, but may even have had an impact on Thursday’s General Election. He said: “As a trade union representative I’m particularly proud of how we’ve put education cuts on the agenda, because Theresa May did try to make this election a b o u t Brexit, but we put e d u c a - t i o n c u t s on the m a p and it did seem to be something that was on p e o p l e ’s agenda.